Football DNA
John Fischer

It's guaranteed. 120 new footballs will be broken in during Super Bowl XL in Detroit. That's because that's the number of footballs that have been affixed with a DNA that insures they have officially been used in the most celebrated pro football game of the year. The authentication has been set in the leather of the ball by a complicated laser process that makes it virtually impossible to duplicate. “The chance of replicating this exact DNA sequence is one in 33 trillion,” said the president of PSA/DNA Authentication Services, the company that created the special branding. “The ball can change hands a thousand-plus times, but it will never lose that DNA.”

Apparently one of these footballs will be able to fetch $1,500 or more for a charity auction or a collector. That's because each one is more than just an ordinary football. It was officially used in the big game and its DNA number will even link it to the particular play in the game for which it is famous.

We are, each one of us, branded with a purpose to worship and serve the one who created us. You are not just any person. You are not just a number. You are an official, made-in-heaven, marked-with-God's-DNA, one-of-a-kind person. And you can change hands a thousand-plus times, but you will never lose that DNA. You can fetch a pretty good price, too, because you have already cost God the life of His only Son. That's what He paid in order to buy you back from sin. It was the ultimate cost; who can even begin to put a value on that?

And imagine you are one of these balls somehow slipping out of the hands of those who know your value, and finding yourself in circulation among the lost souls of the world, getting kicked around and scuffed up in a sand lot or smothered in the bottom of a ball bag at the local gym -- maybe even deflated and thrown in a closet somewhere, and someone takes a second look and notices something about you. You aren't just any old ball; you were in the big game. You are one of a kind. It can happen to any us when we find out who we are and to whom we belong.

So if you watch any of this game, remember to think of this. God made you, put you in the game of life and branded you with His purposes. And regardless of what has happened, or will happen to you, nothing can change that. You are worth a lot to the one who made you. And you have the DNA to prove it.

PDL